Irati GARCÉS RUIZ G B L

DIDÁCTICA DE LA LENGUA

Lehen Hezkuntzako Irakasleen Irakasleen Lehen Hezkuntzako deEducación Maestro Grado en A STUDY ON MOTIVATION AND MOTIVATION ON A STUDY TFG LANGUAGE LEARNING LEARNING LANGUAGE ATTITUDE TOWARDS TOWARDS ATTITUDE YOUNG LEARNERS YOUNG / Irati GARCÉS RUIZ G B L

20 19 Gradua Primaria

IN 20

Grado en Maestro en Educación Primaria Lehen Hezkuntzako Irakasleen Gradua

Trabajo Fin de Grado Gradu Bukaerako Lana

A STUDY ON MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS LANGUAGE LEARNING IN YOUNG LEARNERS

Irati GARCÉS RUIZ

FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS HUMANAS Y SOCIALES GIZA ETA GIZARTE ZIENTZIEN FAKULTATEA UNIVERSIDAD PÚBLICA DE NAVARRA NAFARROAKO UNIBERTSITATE PUBLIKOA ii

Estudiante / Ikaslea Irati GARCÉS RUIZ

Título / Izenburua A study on motivation and attitude towards language learning in young learners

Grado / Gradu Grado en Maestro en Educación Primaria / Lehen Hezkuntzako Irakasleen Gradua

Centro / Ikastegia Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y de la Educación / Giza, Gizarte eta Hezkuntza Zientzien Fakultatea Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa

Director-a / Zuzendaria Amparo LÁZARO IBARROLA

Departamento / Saila Departamento de Ciencias Humanas y de la Educación / Giza eta Hezkuntza Zientzien Saila

Curso académico / Ikasturte akademikoa 2019/2020

Semestre / Seihilekoa Primavera / Udaberria

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Preámbulo

El Real Decreto 1393/2007, de 29 de octubre, modificado por el Real Decreto 861/2010, establece en el Capítulo III, dedicado a las enseñanzas oficiales de Grado, que “estas enseñanzas concluirán con la elaboración y defensa de un Trabajo Fin de Grado […] El Trabajo Fin de Grado tendrá entre 6 y 30 créditos, deberá realizarse en la fase final del plan de estudios y estar orientado a la evaluación de competencias asociadas al título”.

El Grado en Maestro en Educación Primaria por la Universidad Pública de Navarra tiene una extensión de 12 ECTS, según la memoria del título verificada por la ANECA. El título está regido por la Orden ECI/3857/2007, de 27 de diciembre, por la que se establecen los requisitos para la verificación de los títulos universitarios oficiales que habiliten para el ejercicio de la profesión de Maestro en Educación Primaria; con la aplicación, con carácter subsidiario, del reglamento de Trabajos Fin de Grado, aprobado por el Consejo de Gobierno de la Universidad el 12 de marzo de 2013.

Todos los planes de estudios de Maestro en Educación Primaria se estructuran, según la Orden ECI/3857/2007, en tres grandes módulos: uno, de formación básica, donde se desarrollan los contenidos socio-psico-pedagógicos; otro, didáctico y disciplinar, que recoge los contenidos de las disciplinares y su didáctica; y, por último, Practicum, donde se describen las competencias que tendrán que adquirir los estudiantes del Grado en las prácticas escolares. En este último módulo, se enmarca el Trabajo Fin de Grado, que debe reflejar la formación adquirida a lo largo de todas las enseñanzas. Finalmente, dado que la Orden ECI/3857/2007 no concreta la distribución de los 240 ECTS necesarios para la obtención del Grado, las universidades tienen la facultad de determinar un número de créditos, estableciendo, en general, asignaturas de carácter optativo.

Así, en cumplimiento de la Orden ECI/3857/2007, es requisito necesario que en el Trabajo Fin de Grado el estudiante demuestre competencias relativas a los módulos de formación básica, didáctico-disciplinar y practicum, exigidas para todos los títulos universitarios oficiales que habiliten para el ejercicio de la profesión de Maestro en Educación Primaria.

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En este trabajo, el módulo de formación básica ha permitido desarrollar las bases del marco teórico. Se han tenido en cuenta teorías psicológicas estudiadas durante los primeros años de carrera relacionadas con la capacidad cognitiva del alumnado en cuanto al aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. También ha permitido adquirir conocimientos sobre la importancia del papel del profesorado a la hora de adaptar el proceso de aprendizaje con motivo de que sea significativo para todo el alumnado.

El módulo didáctico y disciplinar, particularmente el enfocado a la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las lenguas, se desarrolla a través de la parte teórica y de la práctica. Este módulo me ha dado a conocer la evolución que tiene la motivación del alumnado en cuanto a aprender idiomas, y me ha proporcionado los conocimientos necesarios para entender los factores que influencian el proceso de aprendizaje de los alumnos.

Asimismo, el módulo prácticum ha facilitado un contexto en el que desarrollar la parte empírica del trabajo, ya que, a pesar de las circunstancias debidas al estado de alarma por el COVID-19, ha proporcionado la oportunidad de poder trabajar con alumnos de todo el centro de modo presencial y telemático.

Por último, el módulo optativo de inglés y los contenidos estudiados en las asignaturas relacionadas a esta mención fue lo que me dio a conocer y me impulsó a investigar la evolución de la motivación y las actitudes hacia el aprendizaje de idiomas en educación primaria.

Por otro lado, la Orden ECI/3854/2007 establece que, al finalizar el Grado, los estudiantes deben haber adquirido el nivel C1 en lengua castellana. Por ello, para demostrar esta competencia lingüística, se redactan también en esta lengua los apartados “Introducción” y “Conclusiones”.

Además, la Orden ECI/3854/2007 establece que, al finalizar el Grado, los estudiantes bilingües en una lengua cooficial deben haber adquirido también el nivel C1 en la otra lengua de la comunidad; en la nuestra, la lengua vasca. Por ello, para demostrar esta competencia lingüística, se redactan los apartados “Introducción” y “Conclusiones” también en euskera.

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Resumen

Ante la necesidad de aprender idiomas en una sociedad cada día más exigente y plurilingüe, este estudio pretende evaluar la motivación y la actitud que 58 alumnos (6-12 años) de un colegio de Pamplona (España) tienen hacia las lenguas y su enseñanza. En concreto, hacia el inglés, que estudian como lengua extranjera, el euskera, lengua minoritaria y vehicular en el centro, y el castellano, lengua mayoritaria.

Para ello se ha utilizado un cuestionario en línea y se han tenido en cuenta tres factores que han demostrado ser relevantes en la formación de actitudes: edad, sexo y entorno familiar.

En general, los resultados demuestran una influencia por los tres factores analizados muy acorde con hallazgos de estudios previos: los más jóvenes y las niñas tienen actitudes más positivas y la familia contribuye a formar las creencias del alumnado. Además, las actitudes de los estudiantes son muy positivas hacia los tres idiomas.

Palabras clave: Educación Primaria; Aprendizaje de lenguas; Motivación; Actitud; Estudio.

Abstract

With a growing need to learn languages in an increasingly demanding society, this study explores the motivation and attitude that 58 students (age 6 -12) of a multilingual school in Pamplona (Spain) have towards languages and their teaching. More specifically towards English, the foreign language, Basque, the vehicular language in the school and the minority language in the community and Spanish, the main language.

To this end, an online questionnaire was designed and three factors, claimed to be of vital importance to shape attitudes, were considered: age, family and gender.

In general, the results go in line with previous research and show that the three factors exert and influence in the students’ attitudes: girls and young students are more motivated and the family is key in shaping the beliefs of these children. Also,

Irati Garcés Ruiz vi we found that the attitudes of the students are very positive towards the three languages.

Keywords: Primary Education; Language learning; Motivation; Attitude; Study.

Laburpena

Geroz eta zorrotzagoa den gizarte honetan, hizkuntzak ikasteko beharra handituz doa egunero. Honen aurrean, ikerketa honek Iruñeko (Espainiako) zentro eleanitz bateko 58 ikaslek (6 urtetik 12 urte bitartekoek) haien zentroko egunerokoan erabiltzen diren hiru hizkuntzak ikastearekiko daukaten motibazioa eta jarrera ebaluatzea bilatzen du. Zehazki ingelesarekiko (ikasten duten atzerriko hizkuntza), euskararekiko (eskolaren egunerokoan erabiltzen den hizkuntza eta hizkuntza minoritarioa) eta gaztelaniarekiko (hizkuntza nagusia).

Horretarako, ikasleek hiru hizkuntza hauekiko daukaten jarrera aztertzea baimenduko duen galdetegi bat prestatu da. Hau egiteko, garrantzi handiko hiru faktore hartu dira kontuan: adina, familia eta generoa.

Orokorrean, lagina txikia izan den arren, lortutako emaitzek erakutsi dute faktore hauek ikasleengan daukaten eragina handia dela, eta hizkuntzak ikastearekiko daukaten jarrera moldatu dezaketela. Gainera, emaitzak oso positiboak izan dira.

Hitz gakoak: Lehen Hezkuntza; Hizkuntzen ikaskuntza; Motibazioa; Jarrera; Ikerketa.

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Índice 1. INTRODUCCIÓN 1 1.1. Justificación y contextualización del estudio 1 1.2. Una mirada al estudio del inglés como lengua extranjera en 1 Navarra 1.3. Objetivos 2 1. SARRERA 4 1.1. Sarrera labur bat 4 1.2. Nafarroan ingelesa atzerriko hizkuntza gisa ikastea 4 1.3. Helburuak 5 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 7 2.1. Language learning in early years 7 2.1.1. How do people learn languages? 7 2.2. Motivation and language attitudes 8 2.2.1. Importance of motivation and its source 8 2.2.2. Importance of motivation in language learning 9 2.2.3. Motivation and language attitudes in young learners 10 2.3. The linguistic situation of Navarre 15 2.3.1. One community, three languages 15 2.3.2. School programmes 17 3. THE PROJECT 20 3.1. The school 20 3.2. The context 21 3.3. The participants 21 3.4. The instrument 23 3.5. The procedure 23 3.6. Research questions 24 4. RESULTS 26 4.1. Age and motivation 26 4.2. Motivation at home: The influence of the family 30 4.3. Gender and motivation 32 CONCLUSIONS 39 Limitaciones del estudio 41 Consejos pedagógicos 42 ONDORIOAK 43 Ikerlanaren mugak 45 Aholku pedagogikoak 46 REFERENCES 47 ANNEXES 50 A. 1ST ANNEX: The questionnaire given to the students 50

B. 2ND ANNEX: The results of the questionnaire according to age 58

C. 3RD ANNEX: The results of the questionnaire according to gender 63

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D. 4TH ANNEX: The results of the questions related to attitude and 66 difficulty in language lessons according to gender E. 5TH ANNEX: Results of the questions “Will you continue learning 66 languages when you are older?” And “Why do you think learning languages is important?”

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INTRODUCCIÓN

1.1. Justificación y contextualización del estudio

Junto a la Educación Infantil, la Educación Primaria es uno de los periodos más importantes en lo que respecta al desarrollo personal del alumnado. Durante los primeros años de nuestra vida adquirimos nuestra lengua materna y nuestra identidad cultural, lo que tiene una gran influencia en la forma en que percibimos el mundo que nos rodea. Como la lengua materna (L1 en adelante) o lenguas maternas (L1s) están directamente relacionadas con las primeras interacciones comunicativas que tenemos en la vida, la relación que establecemos con ellas y su contexto constituye la base de nuestra futura actitud hacia la comunicación. Para llevar a cabo este estudio, se han consultado diferentes artículos científicos en revistas de adquisición de lenguas con el fin de comprender mejor la influencia que diversos factores como la edad, el género y la familia pueden tener en la motivación y en las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia el aprendizaje de idiomas.

Los idiomas tienen un papel vital en todas las sociedades y en todos los tipos de educación (formal o informal). Es la forma más eficaz que hemos desarrollado para poder comunicarnos con el resto del mundo, por lo que podemos decir que el aprendizaje de idiomas es crucial para la socialización. Hoy en día, sabiendo que el mundo está más conectado que nunca, es casi esencial saber hablar en inglés hasta en países en los que se considera un idioma extranjero. Según Broughton, Brumfit, Pincas y Wilde (2002), en todo el mundo hay 300 millones de personas que tienen el inglés como lengua materna, y, además, si echamos un vistazo a las personas que usan el inglés como segunda lengua (L2) la cantidad alcanza los 550 millones. Debido a esto, el inglés es el idioma principal utilizado en los medios internacionales y en las instituciones oficiales (como la Organización Mundial de la Salud, por ejemplo).

1.2. Una mirada al estudio del inglés como lengua extranjera en Navarra

Aparte de saber hablar inglés, los estudiantes también necesitan aprender los idiomas que se hablan en su país o en su comunidad autónoma. Dado que los idiomas están directamente vinculados a la cultura y a las tradiciones de cada

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comunidad, si todo el mundo se centrara en aprender únicamente inglés, lo más probable es que una gran parte de estas culturas se perdería. Por lo tanto, los idiomas juegan un papel considerablemente importante en la educación, pero aún más en el contexto de los idiomas minoritarios.

De acuerdo con Lasagabaster (2005), desde los primeros años de educación obligatoria, los estudiantes cuyo ambiente de aprendizaje se encuentra en una situación en la que dos idiomas diferentes están en contacto consideran que estos idiomas son importantes para encajar en la sociedad en la que viven, en sus familias y en el aula. La información que los estudiantes reciban sobre esto contribuirá a establecer su actitud hacia los idiomas y sus hablantes.

En Navarra, donde el inglés es un idioma extranjero y coexiste en las escuelas con un idioma minoritario, el euskera, se ofrecen diferentes programas lingüísticos (o modelos lingüísticos) a los estudiantes. Estos programas combinan el inglés, el euskera y el castellano de diferentes maneras, pero aún se conoce poco sobre su impacto en los logros de los alumnos y mucho menos sobre la influencia que tienen estos modelos en la actitud de los estudiantes hacia los idiomas.

Desarrollar actitudes positivas y respetuosas es fundamental para evitar el confrontamiento que muchas veces se crea alrededor del euskera y el inglés. Mientras la importancia del inglés crece cada día, el euskera se está debilitando debido a diferentes factores que afectan al uso de este idioma en muchos aspectos de la vida diaria, poniéndola en peligro de desaparecer completamente (Igartua y Zabalza, 2012). Es por esto y por el rol tan importante que tiene en nuestra personalidad como comunidad cultural que es tan importante protegerlo.

Teniendo en cuenta este contexto, el presente estudio tiene el objetivo de descubrir cuál es la motivación y cuáles son las actitudes hacia el aprendizaje de idiomas de los estudiantes de Educación Primaria. Para ello, la investigación se ha llevado a cabo en un centro público de Pamplona-Iruña.

1.3. Objetivos

Teniendo en cuenta el contexto descrito anteriormente, los objetivos principales de este estudio son:

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▪ Observar y evaluar las actitudes y el nivel de motivación hacia el aprendizaje de idiomas de los estudiantes de Educación Primaria, en concreto hacia los tres idiomas presentes en la escuela: euskera, castellano e inglés. ▪ Observar la edad, la familia y el género de cada alumno para establecer relaciones entre estos y sus actitudes hacia el aprendizaje de idiomas.

Para ello ha sido desarrollado un cuestionario con el objetivo de recopilar información sobre varios aspectos que pueden influir en la actitud de los estudiantes más jóvenes hacia el aprendizaje de lenguas en la escuela. En concreto, los aspectos que he analizado son la actitud de los padres, la edad y el sexo.

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SARRERA

1.1. Sarrera labur bat Haur Hezkuntzarekin batera, Lehen Hezkuntza ikasleen garapen pertsonalarekin lotutako garai garrantzitsuenetakoa da. Bizitzaren lehenengo urteetan zehar gure ama hizkuntza eta gure identitate kulturala garatzen ditugu, eta garapen honek ingurunea hautemateko moduan eragin handia dauka. Gure ama hizkuntza (hemendik aurrera L1) edo ama hizkuntzak (L1s) zuzenean lotuta daudenez bizitzan ditugun lehenengo elkarreragin komunikatiboekin, hauekin eta hauen testuinguruarekin sortzen dugun harremana etorkizunean komunikazioarekiko izango dugun jarreraren oinarriak osatuko ditu. Ikerketa hau aurrera eramateko, hainbat artikulu zientifiko kontsultatu dira hizkuntza eskuratzean espezializatutako aldizkarietan, ikasleek hizkuntzen ikaskuntzarekiko daukaten motibazioan eta jarreran eragina izan dezaketen faktore desberdinak hobe ulertzeko helburuarekin.

Hizkuntzek gaur egun berebiziko garrantzia daukate gizarte eta hezkuntza mota guztietan (formala edo informala). Gizakiok gure artean komunikatzeko garatu dugun modurik eraginkorrena da, hori dela eta, hizkuntzen ikaskuntza funtsezkoa da sozializazio prozesuan. Gaurko mundu globalizatu honetan, baita bertako hizkuntza ez den herrialdeetan ere, ezinbestekoa da ingelesez hitz egiten jakitea. Broughtonen, Brumfiten, Pincasen eta Wilderen (2002) arabera, mundu osoan 300 milioi pertsonentzat ingelesa bere ama hizkuntza da, eta honez gain, bigarren hizkuntzatzat (L2) ingelesa duten pertsona kopurua gehituta, beste 250 milioi direnak, 550 milioi ingurura hurbilduko litzateke hiztunen kopurua. Honen ondorioz, nazioen arteko harremanetan eta erakunde ofizialetan (esaterako Osasunaren Mundu Erakundean) erabiltzen den hizkuntza nagusia ingelesa da.

1.2. Nafarroan ingelesa atzerriko hizkuntza gisa ikastea

Ingelesez hitz egiten jakiteaz gain, ikasleek bere erkidegoan eta herrialdean hitz egiten diren hizkuntzak ikasteko beharra dute. Hizkuntzak lurralde bateko kulturari eta tradizioei lotuak daudenez, bakarrik ingelesa ikasteak kultura guzti hauetan galera berreskuraezinak sorraraziko lituzke. Honengatik guztiagatik,

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hizkuntzek hezkuntzan berebiziko garrantzia daukate orokorrean, baina batez ere hizkuntza minorizatuen testuinguruan.

Lasagabasterrekin (2005) bat eginez, bere ikaskuntza ingurunea eremu elebidunean duten ikasleek badakite bere testuinguruko alor desberdinetara egokitu ahal izateko (gizartea, familia eta ikasgela, esaterako) bertan erabiltzen diren hizkuntza hauek bereganatzea oso garrantzitsua dela. Ikasleek honen inguruan jasoko duten informazioak bere hizkuntzarekiko eta gainerako hiztunekiko jarrera baldintzatuko du.

Nafarroan, ingelesa atzerriko hizkuntza da, eta eskoletan hizkuntza gutxitu batekin (euskara) eta gaztelaniarekin batera ematen da. Egoera honetan, eredu linguistiko desberdinak eskaintzen zaizkie ikasleei. Eredu hauetan ingelesa, euskara eta gaztelania modu desberdinetan konbinatzen dira hizkuntza bakoitzean ematen den ordu kopuruaren arabera. Dena den, momentuz gutxi ezagutzen da eredu bakoitzak ikasleengan duen eraginari buruz, are gutxiago ikasleek hizkuntzekiko duten jarreran daukan eraginari buruz.

Askotan euskararen eta ingelesaren artean sortzen den gatazka ekiditeko, hizkuntza aniztasunaren aldeko jarrerak sustatzea ezinbestekoa da. Ingelesa geroz eta garrantzitsuagoa bilakatzen ari den heinean, euskara desagertzeko zorian dago eguneroko erabilera zailtzen duten hainbat faktorerengatik(Igartua eta Zabalza, 2012). Honengatik eta gure testuinguru kulturalean daukan eraginarengatik berebiziko garrantzia dauka hizkuntza hau babesteak.

Azaldutako testuingurua kontuan izanik, Lehen Hezkuntzako ikasleek hizkuntzen ikaskuntzarekiko daukaten motibazioa eta jarreraren nondik norakoak zeintzuk diren aztertzea da ikerlan honen helburua. Horretarako, Iruñeko zentro publiko batean oinarritu gara.

1.3. Helburuak

Arestian azaldutako testuingurua kontuan izanda, ikerlan honen helburu nagusiak honako hauek dira:

• Lehen Hezkuntzako ikasleek hizkuntzak ikastearekiko daukaten jarrera eta motibazio maila behatu eta ebaluatu, zehazki euskararekiko,

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gaztelaniarekiko eta ingelesarekiko, eskolan erabiltzen diren hiru hizkuntzak direnak. • Ikasle bakoitzaren adina, familia eta generoa kontuan izanda, hauen eta hizkuntzak ikasteko daukaten jarreraren arteko lotura aztertzea.

Horretarako, ikasleek hizkuntzak ikastearekiko daukaten jarreran eragina izan dezaketen faktoreen inguruko informazioa jasotzea helburu izanik, galdetegi bat sortu dugu. Aztertutako faktoreak zehazki adina, familia eta generoa dira.

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2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The theoretical framework of this Project is divided into two parts. The first part is devoted to describing the role of motivation and language attitudes in the development of second and foreign languages with a special focus on children. The second part describes the linguistic situation of Navarre in general and the reflection of this situation in different school programmes.

2.1. Language learning in early years

2.1.1. How do people learn languages?

From the beginning of life, communication is what sets the connection between the outside world and the inner world of each person. We have different ways of communicating with others, such as non-verbal and verbal communication. The latter is usually learnt at home and reinforced in school, while the former is acquired from our surroundings since we are born. Communication is a two-way process in which someone receives and processes the information or ideas that another person expresses. However, in order to do this process correctly we need to develop a set of tools that will make the representation of the real world more accurate.

All of us speak and/or understand at least one language, except if some condition (mental or physical) gets in the way. We didn’t have to think about the process of learning that language (henceforth L1), we acquired it by having a lot of exposure and opportunities to use it meaningfully all the time. This means that this type of language acquisition is a subconscious process.

In many different countries it is not unusual for children to be bilingual from an early age. According to a study carried out by the Government of Navarre and the National Statistical Institute, the 27’9% of the population above 15 years old has some sort of knowledge of Basque. When it comes to the youth, there has been an increment in the amount of people that has grown up in a context in which Basque and Spanish have been in contact during the last years. Furthermore, when it comes to English, the majority (if not all) the students who are currently attending compulsory education are learning it at school. Also, 49’4% of citizens above 15 years old have some knowledge of English. This

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means that this percentage includes people who are proficient in this language and people who are capable of constructing sentences that can be used in our daily life.

This happens when there is more than one official language, or when the language that families use at home is different from the one that they have to use in public (for instance, immigrant families that live in a country that speaks a foreign language). Following the hypothesis that Lenneberg (1967) proposed related to the critical language learning period, children often acquire (and forget) languages much easier than the rest because of the plasticity that the brain has in the early stages of life. Even if the moment in which the brain’s plasticity declines is very discussed among experts, most of them agree that it is a state that lasts until around 12 years old, but some say that it ends by the age of 7. This hypothesis explains that if people do not acquire a second language (henceforth L2) before puberty, they will never be able to have the same proficiency that a native speaker has.

However, acquisition does not only depend on the exposure that young learners have to the language, it is also related to their developmental stages. Children aged five to seven are generally enthusiastic about learning and using language skills without analysing them, which can lead to them to using the language freely without having to think about whether what they are going to say is linguistically correct or not. This means that, even if they don’t have all the tools to control a language completely, they will feel confident enough to still use it, thus improving their skills. When children are aged ten and above, they start working on the abstract world that goes linked to communication, and usually start to use the spoken word only without having the need of using the physical world to help, which improves their communication skills a lot.

2.2. Motivation and language attitudes

2.2.1. Importance of motivation and its source

Motivation is one of the main factors that influences leaners of all ages. When a student is motivated, they will keep working to get better at whatever they are trying to learn, even if they find learning difficult. If we do not take into account

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our students’ desire to keep learning, they are more likely to fail. In the following lines, we are going to talk about where motivation comes from and how teacher’s attitudes can help to improve students’ motivation.

Trechera (2005) explains that, etymologically, the term “motivation” comes from motus (Latin) which is related to what makes a person do something. According to this, motivation could be defined as a process that an individual goes through before and while doing an activity in which they define the objectives and the resources that they will need in order to achieve their goals, as well as maintaining the same positive attitude towards reaching the goal that they have set.

Some experts believe that there are two motivation types depending on their source: extrinsic and intrinsic. While extrinsic motivation comes from outside the learner (for example, it can be related to passing an exam, or to the need of receiving praise from the teacher), intrinsic motivation comes from within themselves (it only exists because the student has an interest to learn). As students get older, their motivation changes from intrinsic to extrinsic. However, motivation types do not only depend on their source. Many experts (Gardner and Lambert, 1972) also divide it according to the final goal: integrative and instrumental. Students who have integrative motivation are inclined to learn because they want to integrate in that languages culture. Instrumental motivation is incited by a materialistic reason, such as wanting to get a good job. However, Harbour (2012) mentions that, as long as the students’ motivation is strong enough to keep learning, its source or objective does not matter.

Depending on its source and its characteristics, motivation can be affected by different factors (Harbour, 2012), such as:

▪ The society that surrounds the student and its attitude towards language learning. ▪ The people that are closest to the learner and the importance that they give to language learning (for example, whether the paternal figures of the student think that learning languages is important). ▪ The existence of a final goal (such as language learning in order to get a certificate of competency).

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▪ The state of the natural curiosity that young learners have. ▪ The student’s previous learning experiences.

Initially, researchers believed that motivation could not be modified, however, some studies conducted in the 90s demonstrated the contrary: it can change, and it depends on the context to a great extent.

For decades motivation was regarded as a relatively stable learner trait, but from the 1990s onwards research on motivation has undergone a shift towards a more dynamic construct and one more grounded in the context where the learning takes place. Currently motivation is analysed with regards to aspects of the language-learning process closely associated with the classroom (Vandergrift 2005).

After all that has been said in this section, it is clear that motivation, unlike intelligence, can be manipulated by the teacher and the school. Therefore, it is vital to understand it. Teachers need to know their students in order to use methodologies that will help with the maintenance of the motivation that young learners usually have towards learning.

2.2.2. Importance of motivation in language learning

According to Calderón and Morilla (2018), motivation is one of the affective factors that has a big influence in the students’ success at language learning. As a matter of fact, Lennartson (2008) stated that, in combination with the desire to learn a second language, motivation is more relevant than other factors that are linked to the social circumstances of each student.

As it has been previously mentioned, the ability to master a second language is influenced by many factors beyond language skills or mental competence, such as learners’ attitudes towards the target language and its perception. This means that if they have a negative attitude towards language learning, for example towards learning ESL, it will be impossible to reach proficiency level in English. According to Lasagabaster (2011), motivation has been thoroughly studied in the field of second language acquisition (henceforth SLA) and it has been clearly shown that it is one of the most important factors when we look at language

A study on motivation and attitude towards language learning in young learners 11

achievement. It is then necessary to study it in connection to the context and most research has examined the classroom context (Vandergrift 2005).

Apart from all the factors that can affect motivation that have been mentioned in the section “2.2.1. Importance of motivation and its source”, there are also different agents related to the situation where language learning takes place. These, according to Dörnyei (2003) and Ushioda (2006) are called situational factors, and include the teacher, the classrooms atmosphere and the activities. Even if they are sometimes taken for granted and forgotten, these factors are crucially influential in motivation in language learning.

2.2.3. Motivation and language attitudes in Young Learners

In this project, we are going to pay special attention to three main factors that influence young learners’ attitudes and motivation towards language learning: their age, their family background, and their gender. It is important to mention that motivation and attitudes are defined as different concepts, but they are usually studied at the same time to grasp a more comprehensive understanding of students’ behaviours. In the present study, both terms will be used in an interconnected manner to better understand our students’ approach to the languages they are using in school, understanding motivation as the force that moves students to do something and attitude as students’ mental state, including their beliefs and their feelings.

▪ Age and motivation

Many researchers are still debating whether the moment in which children are introduced to a new language is one of the most important factors that will affect their attitude, motivation and their possibilities to be successful in mastering the target language. Even if there are some experts that have an opposing opinion, many investigations have shown a negative correlation between the success of the acquisition of foreign languages and the learner’s age. This means that, the older the student gets, the harder it is for them to acquire a foreign language. As explained above, this is called “Critical period hypothesis” (Asmali, 2017). The development of positive attitudes and motivation towards foreign language

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learning are between the benefits of introducing a foreign language in Primary Education.

According to Pladevall-Ballester (2018) even if young learners are often slow learners in contexts of low exposure to the target language, they have generally shown very high motivation. This is very important, because not only does it help students have a positive relationship with the target language from the start, it also sets the grounds for language learning in the future. However, some experts mention that as learners get older and cognitively develop, there is often a drop in their motivation because they have a more realistic image of what they can achieve and what learning a foreign language actually involves. This reduction in motivation usually takes place during Primary Education (from ages 6 to 12).

Several studies that have been developed in different contexts have shown that the motivation can change depending on the language and on the age of the learners. All these theories have demonstrated that children are generally more motivated and have more positive attitudes towards language learning than the older students (Lasagabaster 2009). For instance, an interesting study is the one developed in the Basque Country by Cenoz in 2001. They analyzed the attitudes towards English in primary education (ages 9-10) and in secondary education (13-14 and 16-17-year olds), and the results showed that younger students had a more positive attitude towards language learning than the oldest students. In order to explain these results, Cenoz does not only rely on psychological factors related to the students’ rejection of the educative system that usually starts in secondary education, he also mentions the differences on the methodologies used in each stage. During Primary Education, the teachers usually have an oral- based approach, while in Secondary Education written competences are much more important than speaking.

In another study, the authors Davies and Brember (2001) concluded that, according to their results, the more time a student spends learning a subject the less motivated they are. It has been proven that young learners learn best with activities that resemble playing games, and as the main goals of introducing new languages at a young age is to improve their intrinsic motivation and to broaden their communicative skills, it is important to know what the learners like doing. If

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a young learner does not feel engaged during the language learning moments, they will probably not develop positive attitudes towards the target language.

▪ Motivation at home: the influence of the socioeconomic and linguistic background

The socioeconomic background of a student depends on many different factors which go from their employment situation to the social welfare expenditure of their country. According to a study developed by Victor R. Jama-Zambrano and Jeovana K. Cornejo-Zambrano in Ecuador in 2015, this means that young learners’ socioeconomic and sociocultural background is affected by macroeconomic policies, which usually influence the education sector.

According to Jama-Zambrano and Cornejo-Zambrano (2015), even if nowadays it is very usual for students to join educative institutions from an early age (such as kindergarten, nursery schools, etc.), family is a decisive factor in a child’s development. They say that, as mentioned earlier, before arriving at school all the constituent elements of a student’s psychic and physical personality, feelings and language are already formed. Considering what has just been mentioned and the fact that we spend a very small percentage of our life at school, it is clear that this institution has no other function than to guide us. In their study, Jama- Zambrano and Cornejo-Zambrano (2015) conclude that children’s development is biased by their parent’s personality. This means that, for instance, if a student’s parents have a negative attitude towards language learning, this rejection will be passed on to them.

When it comes to what influences the attitude towards learning a second language, Lasagabaster (1998) and Laurén (1994) found out that the sociocultural status of the student had a bigger effect than the socioeconomic status, even if many studies ignore this factor. According to them, learners of a high sociocultural status had better marks in the FL tests than the students of an average and low statuses. Different researchers also noticed that social class had an effect on children’s attitude towards language.

Even if we are not going to compare bilingual and monolingual students’ attitudes, as this project has been developed with bilingual students who have been learning Basque since they were at least two years old and English since they

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were four, it is interesting to mention that, according to a study carried out by Lasagabaster in 1998, bilingual students find the process of acquiring a new language much easier than monolingual students (in general).

In this study we are going to find out whether the parents’ attitude influences the students’ attitude and motivation towards language learning. In order to do this, apart from asking young learners what their attitude is, we will also ask about their parents’ opinion and observe if there is a relationship between both.

▪ Gender and motivation

According to Lasagabaster and Sierra (2009), as for the gender variable on attitudes towards language learning, Heining Boynton and Haitema (2007) found out that, in a 10 year period the student’s attitude towards FL learning diminished in both male and female students, even if the latter maintained it significantly better. Following this hypothesis, different studies show that males are more likely to have worse attitudes toward school and all the aspects that are linked to this institution.

However, in the previously mentioned study developed by Heining-Boyton and Haitema in 2007, when both male and female students from an elementary school were asked about their liking of FL learning, the results showed that female students were more interested than male students in learning a foreign language. When they were asked about whether they found the FL teacher fun, similar results were obtained, and the older the students got, the more negative their opinion got, too.

It is interesting to mention that little research has been conducted related to this topic in young learners. In this study we will observe if there is a relationship between the gender and the attitude and motivation towards language learning with a small sample of students aged six to twelve (before reaching adolescence), in a multilingual context.

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2.3. The linguistic situation of Navarre

2.3.1. One community, three languages

According to the Spanish Constitution, which was written in 1978, the only official language of the state is Spanish. However, as it is mentioned in the third article, each Autonomous Community can also contemplate the languages that are spoken in their area as “official”. This means that apart from Spanish, the Autonomous Communities may have more than one official language.

Besides the Basque Country and Navarre, which have two official languages (Basque and Spanish), there are four other autonomous communities that have more than one official language:

▪ Catalonia: Spanish, Catalan and Aranese dialect. ▪ Galicia: Spanish and Galician. ▪ Valencia: Spanish and Valencian. ▪ Balearic Islands: Spanish and Catalan.

However, it is interesting to mention that, even if they are not labelled as “Official languages”, there are other communities in Spain where they use more than one language to communicate with each other, such as Asturian (known as “Asturleonés” in Spanish) which is spoken in Asturias.

The linguistic situation in Navarre, however, is a little bit different to the situation that the rest of the autonomous communities with more than one official language have. In this community, there is a regional law that establishes different linguistic zones related to Basque. This law, which is known as “Ley Foral del Vascuence”, divides Navarre in three parts: The “Basque zone”, the “Mixed Zone” and the “Non-Basque zone”.

The main differences between the linguistic zones can be seen in the aspects related to public education and communication with the public administration. These are the articles that talk about the use of Basque to communicate with public administrative bodies in the three zones:

▪ The use of Basque in the “Basque zone”: “10th article: All the citizens have the right to use Basque as well as Spanish in their relationship with Public Administrative Bodies of Navarre and the right to be serviced in the

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language that they choose. […] All the necessary steps will be taken progressively in order to provide that right.”1 (Foral Law 18/1986) ▪ The use of Basque in the “Mixed zone”: “17th article: All the citizens have the right to use Basque as well as Spanish in their relationship with Public Administrative Bodies of Navarre and the right to be serviced in the language that they choose. […] In order to provide this right, these Administrative Bodies will have the possibility to a) specify in the government job offer the amount of positions in which knowing Basque is essential and b) to give extra credit to the knowledge of Basque to be able to access more positions.”2 (Foral Law 18/1986) ▪ The use of Basque in the “Non-Basque zone”: “18th article: All the citizens have the right to use Basque in their relationship with Public Administrative Bodies of Navarre. These bodies will have the possibility to request the translation to Spanish or to use the translation services specified in the 9th article.”3 (Foral Law 18/1986)

This means that, even if in the “Basque zone” and in the “Mixed zone” knowing Basque is valued as a merit, it is not necessary to know this language in order to be able to communicate with the services that the government offers. However, as it is considered a bonus when it comes to public employment, it is necessary to offer public resources to learn Basque. As according to the 19th article of the Foral Law “Every citizen has the right to receive education in Basque and Spanish” (Foral Law 18/1986), this document specifies the conditions that need to be taken into account in order to offer education in Basque depending on the linguistic zone:

1“Artículo 10: 1. Todos los ciudadanos tienen derecho a usar tanto el euskera como el castellano en sus relaciones con las Administraciones Públicas y a ser atendidos en la lengua oficial que elijan. […] A tal efecto, se adoptarán las medidas oportunas y se arbitrarán los medios necesarios para garantizar de forma progresiva el ejercicio de este derecho. “(LEY FORAL 18/1986, DE 15 DE DICIEMBRE DEL EUSKERA) 2 “Artículo 17: Todos los ciudadanos tienen derecho a usar tanto el euskera como el castellano para dirigirse a las Administraciones Públicas de Navarra. Para garantizar el ejercicio de este derecho, dichas Administraciones podrán: a) Especificar en la oferta pública de empleo de cada año, las plazas para acceder a las cuales sea preceptivo el conocimiento del euskera. b) Valorar como mérito el conocimiento del euskera en las convocatorias para el acceso a las de-más plazas.” (LEY FORAL 18/1986, DE 15 DE DICIEMBRE DEL EUSKERA) 3 “Artículo 18: Se reconoce a los ciudadanos el derecho a dirigirse en euskera a las Administraciones Públicas de Navarra. Estas podrán requerir a los interesados la traducción al castellano o utilizar los servicios de traducción previstos en el artículo 9” (LEY FORAL 18/1986, DE 15 DE DICIEMBRE DEL EUSKERA)

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▪ In all the linguistic zones, the parental authorities of the learner are the ones who decide the language in which they are going to receive compulsory education. ▪ Education in the “Basque zone”: According to the 24th article, teaching Basque and Spanish is compulsory in all the educative levels (except for university studies), and by the end of basic schooling students have to prove that they have achieved sufficient level in both languages. ▪ Education in the “Mixed zone”: According to the 25th article, the incorporation of Basque into teaching will be carried out in a gradual, progressive and efficient way by creating educative paths in which education in Basque is provided to those who request it. ▪ Education in the “Non-Basque zone”: According to the 26th article, the incorporation of Basque into teaching is carried out in the same way as in the “Mixed zone”, but in this zone the offer depends on the demand. This means that there must be a minimum number of students who want to learn in Basque in order to incorporate it in a public centre.

It is important to keep in mind that Basque makes up for a great part of Navarre’s cultural identity, so the main reason to learn it is not the extra credit that you get when it comes to looking for public employment, but to maintain the traditions of the community.

2.3.2. School programmes

As Navarre has more than one official language, the educational system offers the possibility to study both (Basque and Spanish). According to educacion.navarra.es, there are currently 4 linguistic model that each school can follow:

▪ Model A: everything is taught in Spanish, but they teach Basque as a subject. ▪ Model B: part of the education is provided in Basque, and Spanish is taught as one subject. However, they can teach other subjects in Spanish, which depend on the scholar year. ▪ Model D: Everything is taught in Basque except for the subject “Spanish”

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▪ Model G: Everything is taught in Spanish, and there is no option of studying Basque (not even as a second language).

In the “Basque zone”, the authorised models are A, B and D, which means that studying Basque is compulsory. In the “mixed zone”, the models A, B, D and G are permitted and in the “non-Basque zone” the models A, D and G (even if the model D is only provided when there is a minimum number of students who want to receive education that way). When the students start their learning process, they must stay in the same model until they finish compulsory education. However, if they want to change to a different model, they can fill an application asking for the change.

Apart from the models with Basque, there are also different models that have English, Dutch and French as one of their second languages in the Autonomous Community of Navarre (Federación Apymas Colegios British-PAI, 2013):

▪ British Council: This programme comes from the execution of an agreement between the Ministry of Education and Science and the British Council. Its aim is to develop a bilingual educational programme in Spanish public centers through an integrated curriculum of Spanish and British education. ▪ PAI/ IIP (Programa de aprendizaje en ingles/ Ingelesa ikasteko programa): This programme implies the teaching of some subjects in English, using it as the working language. 35% of the lessons are given in English (10 lessons per week). There are different models inside PAI, which differ on the languages that are combined: o PAI-A: PAI is combined with the study of Basque as a FL (10 lessons in English and two Basque lessons per week, the rest in Spanish) o PAI-D: Education in Basque and in English (the 18%-25% of the lessons are given in English, with a minimum of 5 lessons per week). ▪ PAF (Programa de aprendizaje en Francés/ Frantsesa ikasteko programa): This programme has the same structure as “PAI”, but instead of using English the working language is French.

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▪ PAAL (Programa de aprendizaje en alemán/ Alemana ikasteko programa): This programme follows the same structure as “PAI” and “PAF”, but the working language is German.

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3. THE PROJECT

The purpose of this research is to observe and evaluate Primary Education student’s attitudes and motivation towards language learning and to find out whether some aspects of their personal and linguistic background influence them. The case study which is going to be discussed in the following lines was conducted in a school located in Pamplona/Iruñea, capital city of Navarre. The reference group is composed of 58 children of ages from six to twelve. As they are all studying at the same school, the number of hours that they spend learning languages is the same, although different methodologies are used in each year.

This part of the document will be divided in different parts: first, in section 3.1. and 3.2. we will talk about the neighbourhood’s and the school’s characteristics in order to put the results in its context. Then, the procedure that has been followed and the characteristics of the study will be explained in sections 3.3., 3.4. and 3.5. and, to finish, the results will be exposed an analysed in section 4.

3.1. The school

As mentioned before, this project has been carried out at “Sanduzelai I.P.”, a school located in the capital city of Navarre. “Sanduzelai I.P.”. is a public educational centre that offers education in the Basque linguistic model (“D eredua”). As it has already been mentioned, offering education in this linguistic model means that all the subjects except for English and Spanish are taught in Basque. This means that the school educates the children in a multilingual context. Here, the students learn Basque, Spanish and English. However, during the first year of Early Childhood education, the only language that they use is Basque. In the second year, they start receiving English lessons, but it is not until the first year of Primary education when they have Spanish as a subject.

“Sanduzelai I.P” gave its first steps during the academic course of 1987/88. Nowadays, the school has 210 students in both stages of education (Primary education and Infant education). As I have mentioned before, they use Basque in every subject (except for the subjects Spanish and English) and it is also compulsory to use this language all the time while they are at school (this means

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that the extracurricular activities must be developed in Basque and that they have to speak in this language during their lunch breaks).

3.2. The context

Most of the children that study at this school live in the neighbourhood San Jorge- Sanduzelai. It is located in Pamplona-Iruñea (Navarre), in the north-west part of the city, between the river Arga and the train station.

The neighbourhood has changed a lot (physically and related to the population’s diversity) since the first buildings were constructed in 1960, and it is still changing every day. The population stood at around 11583 in 2014, and most of the population is between 40 and 60 years old. In the last years, the percentage of children from 0 to 12 years old has diminished, which has affected the amount of students that study at Sanduzelai I.P. Apart from the reduction of the birth rate, the school’s number of students has also been influenced by the new schools that have been opened in the last years around the neighbourhood. This means that, compared to other schools in the city, this school can be considered small (as it sometimes happens with schools that offer education in the Basque linguistic model or model D).

3.3. The participants

The sample is made up of 58 students from all the years of Primary Education (from six to twelve years old). This means that out of the 210 people that are studying at Sanduzelai I.P, the 27’62% participated in this project. Depending on the course they were in when this project was being carried out, the participants were also divided into six age groups: students from the 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year, 5th year and 6th year, the mean year being the 4th. As for gender, 37’9% or the participants were male and 62’07% female. More details of the sample are provided in Table 1, and a visual representation of the year that the participants were attending the moment that the questionnaire was answered (figure 1).

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Table 1. Characteristics of the sample

Year Number of Male students Female students students 1st year 5 1 4 2nd year 2 1 1 3rd year 14 7 7 4th year 11 3 8 5th year 7 3 4 6th year 19 7 12 Total 58 22 36 % 100% 37’93% 62’07%

Age characteristics of the Gender characteristics of sample the sample

3% 9%

33% 38% 24%

12% 62% 19%

1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year 6th year Male Female

Figure 1: Age (defined by the school year that the students were attending) and gender characteristics of the sample. Source: Personal file

As all the participants in this study have developed compulsory education at the same school (Sanduzelai I.P), we can say that they all started learning Basque when they were at least two years old and English when they were at least three (although there may be students who already knew how to speak these languages before joining the school, as they are their mother tongue).

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3.4. The instrument

Before starting to collect the data, we had to find the most appropriate way to do so. Here, it is important to mention that as the development of this project was affected by the current situation in regards to the state of alert due to the “COVID- 19”, basing this project on the platform “Google Forms” was not the outcome that I had planned. With the goal of designing a viable data management system, different methods were considered, and finally the decision of using the platform “Google Forms” was made. For some questions, a five-point Likert-type scale was used with different variables depending on the question that was being asked:

▪ From “Batere garrantzitsua (Nada importante)” (Not important at all) to “Oso garrantzitsua (Muy importante)” (Very important) in questions related to the importance of languages for them and for their parents. ▪ From “Oso gaizki (Muy mal)” (Very bad) to “Oso ongi (Muy bien)” (Very good) in questions related to their level of competence. ▪ From “Aspergarriak (Aburridas)” (Boring) to “Oso entretenigarriak (Muy entretenidas)” (Very entertaining) in questions related to their attitude during language lessons. ▪ From “Oso zailak (Muy difíciles)” (Very difficult) to “Oso errazak (Muy fáciles)” (Very easy) in questions related to the difficulty of language lessons.

Other questions had to be responded with short answers (for example, “which languages do you use in your daily life?” or “Why do you think learning languages at school is important?”), and a few of them had to be answered with yes or no (for instance, “Will you continue learning languages when you are older?”) (in order to see the questionnaire, go to the first annex).

3.5. The procedure

When this project was starting, the idea was to make use of the lessons that we spent with the students during the subject “Prácticas escolares 3/ Eskola praktikak 3” in order to observe the attitudes that young learners had towards language learning, and their level of motivation during these lessons. This way of

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collecting data could have been done two different ways: overtly or covertly. According to Rubio (2013), when the observation is done overtly, the subjects that are being observed know that someone is analysing what they do. When it is done covertly, they do not know that they are being watched. For this project, covert observation was chosen so as to not influence in the students’ attitude during the language lessons.

However, as the situation changed, we decided to share a questionnaire with the students telematically so that they would fill it at home. In order to do this while protecting the students’ identity, the questionnaire had to be sent out to the administration of the school and have them spread it This meant that less data would be collected, but it was the best option to be able to carry the research out.

3.6. Research questions

As it has been mentioned before, the main aims of the present study are to observe and evaluate pre-adolescent students’ attitudes and motivation towards language learning and to find out whether some aspects of their personal background influence their attitudes.

The questionnaire was developed so that the following questions related to the students’ age, sociocultural status and gender would be answered:

1. What attitudes do students have towards the three languages present in school? (English, Basque and Spanish) 2. What is the influence of age on the students’ attitudes? 3. What is the influence of the family on the students’ attitudes? a. Is there any relationship between the language that the students’ parents use for work and their attitude towards it? b. Is there any relationship between the languages that the students use to speak with their family and friends and their motivation and attitude towards them? 4. What is the influence of gender on the students’ attitudes?

Based on the literature review presented above, the following predictions can be made.

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Regarding the attitude towards the three languages we expect students to be positive given that they are immersed in a bilingual context and the prestige of English is almost undisputable (Lasgabaster, 2005).

Regarding age is that the motivation will decline as children get older, therefore, students in the last years of Primary will probably display lower scores in terms of motivation (Lasagabaster, 2009).

On the other hand, a familiar background where the languages are present either for work or daily communication will probably positively influence the attitudes of the children (Harbour, 2012; Jama-Zambrano and Cornejo-Zambrano, 2015; Lasagabaster, 1998; Laurén, 1994).

As for gender, although not so clear in the case of young learners, the females will be expected to display more positive attitudes than their male counterparts (Heining Boynton and Haitema (2007).

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4. RESULTS

In order to make sure that all the questions that were explained in the previous sections are answered, the following lines will be organised according to them. First, the results of the questions related to age will be explained in section 4.1, secondly the ones related to the sociocultural and language background in section 4.2, and finally the results of the questions related to gender and motivation in section 4.3.

4.1. Age and motivation

In the following lines, the results of the questions related to age and motivation that appeared in the questionnaire will be analysed. When it comes to the importance of languages for the students from the first year of Primary Education to the last, the results showed that age had no relation with how important they found language learning (see table 2). For this question, a five-point Likert-type scale was used with 1 meaning “Not important at all” and 5 “Very important”. As it can be seen in “Table 2”, the mean was considerably high, the highest being in the 4th year. This means that all ages gave a lot of importance to languages, which is undoubtedly, a positive result.

Table 2. The importance of languages for pre-adolescent students

YEAR 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

Basque 5 4 4,64 4,91 4,71 4,53

Spanish 4,8 4,5 4,5 4,91 4,71 4,42

English 4,2 4,5 4,64 4,72 4,71 4,47

Mean 4,67 4,33 4,59 4,84 4,71 4,47

Regarding the self-evaluation of their language proficiency skills, the results showed that the students felt much more confident with Basque and Spanish than

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with English (see table 3) and again, the difference between age groups were small and did not seem to follow a trend. According to them, their language skills (speaking, reading, writing and general understanding) are 18,62% worse in English than in Basque and Spanish, as the mean goes from 4,485 in Basque and Spanish to 3,65 in English, with 1 meaning “Very bad” and 5 “Very good”. Moreover, even if a very small number of students from the 2nd year participated, it can also be seen that they have the highest mean in language proficiency in all the languages, being the ones who get the highest results in the three languages.

Table 3. Language proficiency self-evaluation based on the language

YEAR 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th Mean

Basque 4,35 4,88 4,34 4,50 4,46 4,49 4,5

Spanish 4,2 4,75 4,2 4,59 4,53 4,54 4,47

English 3,5 4,13 3,3 3,78 3,57 3,63 3,65

If we take a deeper look at the students’ beliefs on their language proficiency, we can see that the students from the 3rd year have the lowest score amongst all. The skill that the students feel less proficient in is writing (see table 4), scoring the lowest mean of all, with 1 meaning “Very bad” and 5 “Very good”. While examining the individual answers that the 3rd year and 6th year students gave, a big polarisation could be seen in relation to their writing skills. This means that the students either believed that they were very good at writing (4-5), or very bad (1-2). There were very few neutral answers.

Table 4. Language proficiency self-evaluation based on the skill

Year 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th Mean

Speaking 4,07 4,67 3,97 4,21 4,09 4,22 4,21

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Writing 3,47 4,5 3,47 4,18 4,04 3,81 3,91

Reading 3,6 4,33 3,9 4,39 4,14 4,33 4,12

Comprehension 4,47 4,83 4,3 4,38 4,47 4,51 4,49

When students were asked about the reason why they thought learning languages at school was important, the answers that they gave ranged between travelling, working future, personal growth, tradition/culture and communication. In the following figures (figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7) you can see what percentage of the answers mentioned each reason. As you can see, if we take a look at all the answers without dividing them according to the students’ ages, we can see that the most mentioned reason is “Personal growth” (it appears in 30,91% of the answers). In this category, answers related to studying languages because they like them, or because, as student 58 mentions, “languages enrich us, they open the world to us”4 (see the 5th annex) are included. In all the years except for the 2nd and 4th year, the students’ mentioned the importance of learning languages because of the culture that is connected to them, and many also stated the importance of learning Basque so that it does not disappear.

3rd year students 1st year students 2nd year students

Travelling Working future Personal growth Tradition Communication

Figure 2: 1st year Figure 3: 2nd year Figure 4: 3rd year students' answers. students' answers. students' answers. Source: Personal Source: Personal Source: Personal file. file. file.

4 “Hizkuntzak aberastu egiten gaitu gizakiak bezala… mundura irekitzen digu.”

A study on motivation and attitude towards language learning in young learners 29

4th year students 5th year students 6th year students

Travelling Working future Personal growth Tradition Communication

Figure 5: 4th year Figure 6: 5th year Figure 7: 6th year students' answers. students' answers. students' answers. Source: Personal Source: Personal Source: Personal

file. file. file.

The percentage of answers related to learning languages for their future careers is similar in every year, as the percentage of answers in which it is mentioned stays between 11% and 20% on every year. Among all the answers, this was stated in 15,45% of them. Apart from that, when it comes to the answers that mention the ability to communicate with people as one of the reasons to learn languages at school, the 1st and 2nd year students mentioned it the most with a mean of 32,29%, while the rest of the years (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th) mentioned it in 21,47% of them.

When it comes to the students’ attitudes during language lessons, the following data was collected using a five-point Likert-type scale (see “Table 5”). The points went from “1= Very boring” to “5= Very entertaining”. If we take a look at the students’ attitudes and divide them in two groups, the first group being students from the first year to the third and the second group being students from the fourth year to the sixth, we can see that the mean attitude drops 3,22%, from 4,04 to 3,91. If we take a closer look, we will see that the attitude in Basque lessons drops 8,94%, from 4,25 to 3,87, the attitude in Spanish lessons increases 11’41% from 3,68 to 4,10 and the attitude in English lessons decreases10,05% from 4,18 to 3,76. To sum up, this means that the students’ attitude decreases with age in Basque and English lessons while in Spanish lessons it increases. It is interesting

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to mention that, while in the first group (students from the first to the third year) most students’ answers were from “Neutral” (3) to “Very entertaining” (5), in the second group the answers were more polarised, as there were almost no students who selected “neutral” as their answer.

Table 5. Language attitudes of pre-adolescent students divided by language.

Year 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

Basque 4,4 4 4,36 3,9 4,29 3,42

Spanish 4,2 3 3,85 4,36 4 3,95

English 4,4 4 4,14 3,9 3,43 3,95

If we compare the first years’ students’ attitude towards language learning with the sixth years’ students’ attitude, a big decrease can be seen. In Basque, the attitude drops 22,27% from 4,4 to 3,42 (the biggest drop). In Spanish, it drops 5,95% from 4,2 to 3,95 (the smallest decrease), and in English it drops 10,23% from 4,4 to 3,95. As it can be seen in “Table 6”, the students’ attitude towards language lessons in the mean of the three languages decreases in a lineal way with the exception of the second year, where it drops significantly.

Table 6. Mean of language attitudes of pre-adolescent students.

1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year 6th year

4,33 3,67 4,12 4,05 3,91 3,77

4.2. Motivation at home: The influence the family

In the following lines, the results of the questions related to the parents’ attitude towards language learning that appeared in the questionnaire will be analysed.

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These questions were related to what the parents’ thoughts about the importance of language learning and the language that they used for work.

As for the importance of language learning, the results were all very similar as they were all between 4,2 and 5. As the “Table 7” shows, the mean attitude is very positive every year towards every language, with the lowest being the attitude that the parents of first year’s students’ have towards English with a 4,2 and the highest being the parents of fourth year’s students attitude towards Spanish and the parents of second year’s students attitude towards English and Spanish.

If we compare these results to the ones showed in “Table 2”, we will see that the fourth year students also have two of the highest results in their mean attitude towards language learning (while the parents’ mean attitude towards Basque and Spanish is 4,98, the students’ mean attitude is 4,91). With this comparation, it is also visible that the lowest score is found in the first-year students’ and parents’ mean attitude towards English, as they both have a mean of 4,2. It is also worth mentioning that, even if the mean attitude of the parents of second year students is 4,52, the students’ attitude rises 4,2% to 4,71.

Table 7. Means of the parents’ attitude towards language learning.

Year 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th Mean

Basque 4,9 4,5 4,6 4,95 4,55 4,47 4,66

Spanish 4,3 5 4,65 5 4,49 4,38 4,64

English 4,2 5 4,55 4,85 4,54 4,53 4,61

Mean 4,47 4,83 4.6 4,93 4,53 4,46 4,64

As for the language that parents’ use for work and their children’s attitude towards the importance of these languages, out of the 115 parents that told us what language they use, the data showed that 88,7% of the parents used only Spanish

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for work, and 11,3% Basque or English. If we examine the answers that the students whose parents use a language that is not Spanish at their workplace gave to why they thought learning languages at school is important, we find the following results (see figure 8):

Travelling Working future Personal growth Tradition Communication

Figure 7: Answers of the students whose parents use Basque or English for work. Source: Personal file.

As it can be seen, the reasons that were mentioned the most are travelling (30,43%) and communication with others (30,43%), followed by their working future (17,39%) and personal growth (13,04%), with tradition being the least mentioned reason (8,70%). If we take a look at the parents who use English for work, we will see that only 0,87% of them does. When we observe the answer that these parents’ children gave to why they think learning languages at school is important, we can see that 100% of them mentioned that it is only important for personal growth. It is also interesting to mention that the students whose parents use English for work spend a bigger part of their free time doing activities in this language (100% of the students whose parents use English at work watch television and read books in this language).

4.3. Gender and motivation

In this section, we will take a look at the results of the questions related to the students’ attitude towards language learning by comparing them according to

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their gender (male or female). First, we will talk about the results related to the student’s proficiency on each language. After that, we will observe the importance of each language for the students, their attitude during language lessons and how difficult they find these language lessons. Then, we will analyse the answers that the students gave to why they think learning languages at school is important, and to finish, the data that shows which languages each gender use during their free time will be analysed. In order to see the questionnaire results related to this topic, go to the 3rd annex.

When it comes to the importance of languages for the students, we can see in “Table 8” that female students have a higher mean than male students (with 0 meaning “Not important at all” and 5 meaning “Very important)(See “Table 8”). This means that female students find language learning more important than male students. According to the collected data that can be seen in “Table 8”, even if the difference is not very big, the mean that females got when asked about the importance of languages is 6,13% higher than the one male students got. Also, for male students Spanish is the most important language amongst the three, while for female students it is Basque.

Table 8. Means of the importance of language for each gender

MALE FEMALE

Basque 4,41 4,83

Spanish 4,5 4,69

English 4,41 4,67

If we take a look at what the students think about their skills related to each language (Speaking, Writing, Reading and Comprehension in Basque, Spanish and English), as it can be seen in “Table 9”, female students got higher means than male students (with 1 meaning “Very bad” and 5 meaning “Very good”).

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Table 9. Means of language proficiency level (self-evaluation) according to gender

MALE FEMALE

Basque 4,26 4,54

Spanish 4,32 4,55

English 3,48 3,58

Taking into account that the results related to students’ proficiency level are based on their personal belief, thus, on their self-evaluation, it is important to remember that these results do not show the students’ proficiency level on these languages, they reflect their beliefs about themselves. To put it in other words, it reflects their self-esteem, whether they believe they are good enough or not. Basing off this, we can see that both genders rank their proficiency on each level the same: they think they are best in Spanish, then in Basque, and finally, in English. According to these results, female students got higher scores than male students in every language. This means that females consider themselves better users of the language in general than males.

When it comes to male and female students’ attitude during language lessons, as it can be seen in “Table 10”, female students find language lessons generally more entertaining than male students (with 1 meaning “Boring” and 5 meaning “Very entertaining”). While the females have a mean of 4,01, it drops to 3,7 when it comes to male students, which means that young male learners find language lessons 7,73% less entertaining than females. It is also interesting to mention that, while male students find Basque lessons the most entertaining, female students like English lessons the most. This means that there is no relation between what they think about the importance of each language with how entertaining they find the lessons, as they do not match the results examined in the previous paragraph.

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Table 10. Means of attitude during language lessons according to gender

MALE FEMALE

Basque 3,82 4,03

Spanish 3,64 3,83

English 3,64 4,16

As regards lesson’s difficulty, the results show that male students find language lessons more difficult than female students (see “Table 11”), as the mean opinion on the difficulty of the lessons in the three languages is 3,58 in males and it rises 5,87% to 3’79 in females. According to the data that was collected, both male and female students find Basque lessons the easiest and English lessons the most difficult. However, it is interesting to mention that none of the languages in neither of the genders scored more than 3,83.

Table 11. Means of difficulty of language lessons according to gender

MALE FEMALE

Basque 3,64 3,83

Spanish 3,59 3,78

English 3,5 3,75

You can find a summary of all the means mentioned previously in the 6th annex. In this annex, the fact that female students have a more positive attitude and motivation towards language learning can be easily seen.

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As for the language that students use when they do activities during their free time, the main difference between both genders is that female students use Basque more than male students, and according to their answers, the activity that both languages do most in Basque is reading. In this data we can also see that the small percentage of students that use English during their leisure time mostly use it when browsing the internet. In the following table (“Table 12”) we show what percentage of male and female students do these leisure activities in each language. These activities include watching television, reading books, playing video games, browsing the Internet and listening to the radio.

Male students Female students

BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH

Figures 8. and 9. Languages used during leisure activities by male and female students

As for the answers that male and female students gave when they were asked about why they thought learning languages at school is important, this is how the ranking of the reasons looks like from most mentioned to least mentioned amongst male students:

1. Travelling 2. Working future and communication 3. Personal growth 4. Tradition

As for female students, the ranking looks like this:

1. Personal growth 2. Communication 3. Travelling

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4. Working future 5. Tradition

As you can see, male students’ motivation is based on extrinsic factors (travelling and working future), while female students’ motivation is much more intrinsic, as the most mentioned factors in their answers were learning languages for personal growth and for communicating with other people. In order to see the explanation of the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, go to section 2.2.1.

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CONCLUSIONES El objetivo de este estudio era observar y evaluar las actitudes y el nivel de motivación de los alumnos de Educación Primaria hacia el aprendizaje de idiomas. Para poder llevar esta observación a cabo, se desarrolló y envió a los alumnos por vía telemática un cuestionario con preguntas que ayudarían a relacionar la edad, el contexto familiar y el género con las actitudes y motivación del alumnado hacia las tres lenguas presentes en su día a día y su vida escolar: euskera, castellano e inglés.

En cuanto a los resultados relacionados con la edad, estos mostraron que entre edades no había diferencias importantes en la importancia que los estudiantes daban al aprendizaje de idiomas, ya que todos consideraban que el aprendizaje de idiomas es muy importante hoy en día. Como puede verse en la sección 2.3.1, los estudiantes del tercer año de Educación Primaria obtuvieron los peores resultados cuando se les pidió que autoevaluaran sus propias habilidades lingüísticas. Esto podría estar relacionado con el hecho de que, en el tercer año de Educación Primaria, los estudiantes comienzan a aprender más cosas sobre el lenguaje en sí (cómo conjugar verbos correctamente, cómo relatar de forma apropiada, como construir frases correctamente…). Durante el tiempo que pasé en la escuela en las asignaturas “Prácticas escolares 2” y “Prácticas escolares 3”, pude ver que hasta el tercer año de Educación Primaria el objetivo principal del profesorado era hacer que los estudiantes produjeran sin prestar mucha atención a la precisión gramatical (los profesores proporcionaban a los alumnos contextos en los que poder utilizar el idioma como herramienta para comunicarse). Sin embargo, a partir de este año las producciones de los alumnos comienzan a ser evaluadas por el maestro. El hecho de que este sea el primer año en el que experimentan estas correcciones puede explicar por qué los estudiantes que están en este curso se sienten menos seguros con la calidad de su discurso. Como se ha mencionado previamente en la sección 1.2.3 del marco teórico, muchos estudios hablan sobre este cambio en la metodología como un factor muy influyente en la motivación de los estudiantes (Cenoz, 2001).

Si le echamos un vistazo a los resultados obtenidos cuando se les preguntó a los alumnos por el porqué de la importancia de aprender idiomas, la razón más mencionada fue “el crecimiento personal”, excepto entre los alumnos de quinto

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curso, a pesar de que se vuelve a recuperar entre los estudiantes de sexto. Esto es importante porque, al contrario de lo que se mencionó en el marco teórico sobre la evolución de la motivación de los estudiantes, esto significa que no hay una tendencia clara a cambiar el origen de la motivación de intrínseco a extrínseco a medida que los estudiantes van pasando de curso. Es interesante mencionar también que los estudiantes del primer y segundo curso fueron los que mencionaron “La comunicación” con las personas como una de las razones más importantes para aprender idiomas.

En cuanto a la actitud de los estudiantes durante las lecciones de idiomas, los resultados obtenidos en este estudio coinciden con los mencionados en el marco teórico, en la sección 1.2.3. La actitud hacia las clases que mostraron los estudiantes del primer curso al tercer curso de Educación Primaria fue 3,22% más positiva que la que mostraron los alumnos de cuarto, quinto y sexto. Esto coincide con lo mencionado previamente y en lo mencionado por Lasagabaster (2009), ya que, según este autor, la tendencia a sentirse menos motivado durante las clases de idiomas a medida que pasan los años es la más común entre los jóvenes que estudian idiomas.

Por lo que respecta a los resultados relacionados con la influencia de la familia, es muy interesante mencionar que, cuando se preguntó a los padres sobre la importancia del aprendizaje de idiomas, la mayoría de las respuestas fueron muy positivas. En la comparación entre la “Table 2” y la “Table 7”, se puede ver que, como Harbour (2012), Lasagabaster (1998), Laurén (1994), Jama-Zambrano y Cornejo-Zambrano (2015) mencionan, la actitud de los padres influye claramente en la de los estudiantes. Sin embargo, cuando se preguntó a los estudiantes cuyos padres utilizan un idioma que no es el castellano para trabajar por qué creían que aprender idiomas es importante, la razón más mencionada no fue su futuro laboral, sino poder viajar. Esto significa que, incluso viendo que los idiomas pueden ser útiles para tener un buen trabajo en el futuro, no creen que este sea un factor decisivo a la hora de aprender idiomas. En cambio, como ya se ha explicado antes, la razón más mencionada fue poder viajar y poder comunicarse con otras personas.

Cuando los resultados se analizaron desde la perspectiva del género, estos mostraron que, en general, las estudiantes tienen una actitud más positiva hacia

A study on motivation and attitude towards language learning in young learners 41

el aprendizaje de idiomas que los estudiantes varones, lo que coincide con lo que muchos investigadores han mencionado en investigaciones anteriores (Heinig-Boyton y Haitema (2007); Lasagabaster y Sierra (2009)). El hecho de que las alumnas le dieran más importancia al aprendizaje del euskera y los alumnos al aprendizaje del castellano puede estar relacionado con las actividades que cada género realiza durante su tiempo libre, ya que la mayoría de los alumnos varones dijeron que hacen todas las actividades en castellano. A pesar de que las mujeres también dijeran que realizan actividades en castellano, el uso del euskera es más frecuente entre ellas que entre los varones.

En relación con lo que los y las estudiantes piensan sobre sus habilidades relacionadas con cada idioma y su actitud durante las lecciones de idiomas, las mujeres también mostraron más confianza y gusto por las lecciones de idiomas que los hombres. En relación con esto, los estudiantes varones encuentran las lecciones de idiomas más difíciles que las mujeres, por lo que puede justificarse la actitud más negativa que tienen hacia estas lecciones.

Para terminar, creo que es interesante mencionar que cuando se les preguntó a los estudiantes por qué creen que el aprendizaje de idiomas es importante, la clasificación de las razones mostró que la motivación de las mujeres era intrínseca y la de los alumnos varones extrínseca. Esto podría estar relacionado con los mensajes que se dirigen a estos géneros en nuestra sociedad, por ejemplo, que se presuponga que a las mujeres se les da mejor comunicarse con los demás y que los hombres sean más ambiciosos en sus logros laborales. O, simplemente, que las mujeres son de letras y los hombres de ciencias.

Limitaciones del estudio

Como se ha mencionado anteriormente, este estudio no se ha desarrollado en circunstancias normales. Al declarar el estado de alarma en nuestro país a causa del COVID-19, el cuestionario tuvo que ser enviado a las familias de forma telemática. Como no era obligatorio y las familias tenían que rellenarlo desde casa, la muestra era pequeña y solo representaba al 27% de los estudiantes. Por tanto, quizás las familias más motivadas fueron las que dieron una respuesta al cuestionario. Puede que los resultados fueran diferentes si pudiera haber reunido las respuestas de los estudiantes de todo el centro.

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Por otro lado, administrar un cuestionario online no permite controlar, por ejemplo, la influencia que los padres podrían haber ejercido en las respuestas. A pesar de ello, creo que los resultados son interesantes y positivos, y también ofrecen algunas pistas para saber cómo lidiar con la motivación y los idiomas en este contexto.

Consejos pedagógicos

En general, los resultados de este estudio son muy positivos en todos los aspectos, lo que significa que la forma de abordar los idiomas que tiene el profesorado de esta escuela es muy exitosa. Casi todos los aspectos que se han observado coinciden con los resultados de investigaciones anteriores, lo que significa que, a parte de la escuela, la edad, la familia y el género tienen una gran influencia en la motivación y actitud de los estudiantes hacia el aprendizaje de idiomas.

Sin embargo, a pesar de que los resultados hayan sido muy positivos, la diferencia en la actitud de los estudiantes varones y mujeres es algo en lo que la escuela y las familias deberían trabajar. ¿Por qué los estudiantes varones piensan más en viajar y trabajar, y las estudiantes mujeres en el crecimiento personal? ¿Tiene que ver la atmósfera de la escuela en esta diferencia? ¿Es por cosas que los estudiantes escuchan en casa, o leen sobre esto mientras navegan por Internet?

El hecho de que ambos géneros utilicen más el euskera para leer durante su tiempo libre indica que los proyectos que están llevando a cabo en la escuela para motivar a los estudiantes a tener mejores hábitos de lectura tienen una gran influencia en ellos. Además, las opiniones que expresaron los estudiantes con respecto a la preservación de la cultura a edades tan tempranas son muy positivas y deben mantenerse. Sería un gran incentivo incluir más contenido cultural en las lecciones de idiomas, para que los alumnos no se olviden de la importancia de aprender idiomas (más específicamente, los idiomas minoritarios).

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ONDORIOAK Ikerlan honen helburu nagusia Lehen Hezkuntzako ikasleen hizkuntzak ikasteko duten jarrera eta motibazio maila behatzea eta ebaluatzea da. Hau aurrera eraman ahal izateko galdetegi bat garatu da, eta ikasleekin modu telematikoan partekatu da. Galdetegi honetan sartutako galderek ikasleen adina, familia eta generoa haien motibazioarekin eta jarrerarekin lotzeko aukera ematen dute.

Adinarekin lotutako emaitzei dagokionez, ikasleei hizkuntzak ikasteak daukan garrantziaren inguruan galdetzean ez zen adinen arteko desberdintasun handirik somatu, izan ere, maila guztietako ikasleek esan zuten hizkuntzak ikastea oso garrantzitsua dela gaur egun. 2.3.1 atalean ikus daitekeen bezala, Lehen Hezkuntzako hirugarren mailako ikasleek lortu zituzten emaitzarik okerrenak. Hau justifikatzeko, kontuan izan beharko genuke maila honetan hizkuntzari lotutako eduki gramatikalei hasiera ematen dietela (aditzak jokatzen, idazlanak garatzen, esaldi egokiak eraikitzen…). “Eskola praktikak 2” eta “Eskola praktikak 3” ikasgaietan eskolan egondako denboran irakasleek erabiltzen duten metodologia behatzean, ikusi ahal izan nuen Lehen Hezkuntzako hirugarren maila arte irakasleen helburua ikasleek produzitzea zela, zuzentasun gramatikalari kasu handirik egin gabe (honetarako, hizkuntza komunikazio tresnatzat erabiltzeko testuinguruak eskainiz). Hirugarren mailatik aurrera, berriz, ikasleen produkzioak ebaluatzen hasten dira. Hau zuzenketak jasotzen dituzten lehenengo urtea izateak haien diskurtsoaren kalitateari buruzko iritzia baxuagoa izatea ekar dezake. Marko teorikoaren 1.2.3 atalean aipatu bezala, Lehen Hezkuntzan erabiltzen diren metodologiak ikertu dituzten ikertzaile askok esaten dute metodologia aldaketa honek ikasleen motibazioan eragin handia daukaten faktoreetako bat dela (Cenoz, 2001).

Hizkuntzak ikasteko garrantziaren zergatiari buruz galdetzean lortutako emaitzei dagokionez, gehien aipatu zen arrazoia “garapen pertsonala” izan zen, bosgarren mailan izan ezik. Hala ere, seigarren mailakoen emaitzak aztertzean, berriz ere garrantzia berreskuratzen du. Datu hauek oso adierazgarriak dira, izan ere, motibazioaren jatorrian dagoen aldaketari buruz marko teorikoan aipatzen denaren kontra, argi dago ikasle hauen motibazioaren jatorriak (berezko motibazioa izatetik estrintsekoa izatera) adinarekin ez duela aldaketarik pairatzen. Aipatzekoa da ere lehenengo eta bigarren mailako ikasleek

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komunikazioa hizkuntzak ikasteko arrazoi garrantzitsuenen artean aipatzen zutela (erantzunen artean gehienetan errepikatzen zirenetakoa zen).

Hizkuntza saioetan ikasleek daukaten jarrerari erreparatuz, berriz, ikus daiteke lortutako erantzunak marko teorikoan aipatutakoarekin bat egiten dutela (1.2.3 atalean). Lehenengo mailatik hirugarren maila bitarteko ikasleen bataz bestekoa laugarren mailatik seigarren mailara bitarteko ikasleek lortutakoa baino %3,22 altuagoa da. Hau Lasagabasterrek (2009) aipatutakoarekin bat egiten du. Autore honen arabera, normala da ikasleak hizkuntza saioekiko daukaten motibazioan galtzea ematea urteak pasatzen diren heinean.

Familiak daukan eraginari lotutako emaitzei dagokionez, oso interesgarria da aipatzea gurasoei hizkuntzen ikaskuntzaren garrantziari buruz galdetzerakoan lortutako emaitzak oso positiboak izan zirela. “Table 2” eta “Table 7” taulen artean konparaketa egiterakoan ikus daiteke, Harbourrek (2012), Lasagabasterrek (1998), Laurenek (1994), Jama-Zambranok eta Cornejo-Zambranok (2015) aipatzen duten bezala, gurasoek hizkuntzekiko daukaten jarrerak eragin handia daukala ikasleen jarreran. Hala ere, gaztelania ez den beste hizkuntza bat lan egiteko erabiltzen duten gurasoak dituzten ikasleei hizkuntzak ikastearen garrantziaren zergatiari buruz galdetzerakoan, hauek ez zioten garrantzi berezirik eman arlo laboralari, baizik eta bidaiatzeko aukera izateari. Honekin ondorioztatu dezakegu ikasleek oraindik ez diotela garrantzi handirik ematen etorkizunean hizkuntzei esker lanbide on bat lortzeari. Arestian aipatu bezala, faktore erabakigarrienak bidaiatzea eta beste pertsonekin komunikatzea direla esan zuten.

Emaitzak generoaren ikuspuntutik aztertzean, datuek erakutsi zuten neskek hizkuntzen ikaskuntzarekiko jarrera positiboagoa daukatela mutilek baino. Honek marko teorikoan aipatutako hainbat ikerlanek esaten dutenarekin bat egiten du (Heining-Boyton eta Haitema (2007); Lasagabaster eta Sierra (2009)). Aipagarria da ere neskentzat euskara dela hizkuntzarik garrantzitsuena, eta mutilentzat gaztelania. Hau denbora librean egiten dituzten aktibitateetan erabiltzen duten hizkuntzarekin lotuta egon daiteke, izan ere mutilek gauza gehienak gaztelaniaz egiten dituztela aipatu zuten. Neskek gauzak hizkuntza honetan ere egiten dituzten arren, euskaraz mutilek baino gauza gehiago egiten dituztela erakutsi zuten datuek.

A study on motivation and attitude towards language learning in young learners 45

Ikasleek haien gaitasunei buruz pentsatzen dutenari eta hizkuntz saioetan daukaten jarrerari erreparatuz, neskek berriro mutilek baino emaitza positiboagoak lortu zituzten. Neskek hizkuntza erabiltzeko orduan haien buruarengan konfiantza handiagoa daukatela erakutsi zuten datuek, baita hizkuntza saioak gustukoagoak zituztela ere. Honekin lotuta, saioen zailtasunari buruz galdetzen zuten atalei so eginez, argi ikusten da mutilentzat hizkuntza saioak zailagoak direla neskentzat baino, mutikoek erakusten duten jarrera negatiboago hori justifikatu dezakeena.

Bukatzeko, interesgarria da aipatzea hizkuntzak ikasteko garrantziaren arrazoiaren inguruan galdetzean neskek ematen zituzten arrazoiek berezko motibazioa nagusi dela erakusten zutela emaitzek, eta mutilen artean, ordea, motibazio estrintsekoa. Hau gure gizartean genero desberdinei bidaltzen zaizkien mezuei lotuta egon daiteke (adibidez, neskek komunikatzeko gaitasun handiagoa daukatela, edo mutilak lan esparruan anbizio handikoak izan behar direla).

Ikerlanaren mugak

Arestian aipatu bezala, ikerlan hau ezin izan da baldintza normalekin aurrera eraman. Gure herrialdean COVID-19aren ondorioz larrialdi-egoera deklaratzean, galdetegia ikasleekin partekatzeko modua aldatu behar izan zen eta familiei modu telematikoan partekatu behar izan genien. Galdetegi hau betetzea derrigorrezkoa ez zenez, lagina nahiko txikia izan da eta bakarrik ikastetxeko ikasleen %27aren irudia da. Honen ondorioz, baliteke bakarrik familia motibatuenek erantzuna eman izatea galdetegiari eta emaitzak agian desberdinak izango ziratekeen ikastetxe osoko ikasleen erantzuna eskuratzeko aukera izan bagenu.

Beste aldetik, galdetegia modu telematikoan erantzuteak ez du baimentzen gurasoek erantzunetan izan ahal duten eragina kontrolatzea (baliteke galdetegia ikasleek ordez haien gurasoek bete izana). Hala ere, honekin guztiarekin, uste dut ikerlan honen emaitzak oso positiboak izan direla, eta ikasleen motibazioa handitu eta jarrera hobetuko duten gauzetan lan egiteko ideia batzuk eskaintzen dituztela.

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Aholku pedagogikoak

Orokorrean, ikerlan honen emaitzak aspektu guztietan oso positiboak izan dira. Honek erakusten du eskolak hizkuntzei hurbiltzeko erabiltzen ari den prozesua oso arrakastatsua dela. Aztertu diren ia aspektu guztiek marko teorikoan aipatutako ikerlanetan ondorioztatutakoarekin bat egiten dute, beraz, honek esan nahi du eskolaz gain, adinak, familiak eta generoak ikasleek hizkuntzen ikaskuntzarekiko daukaten motibazioa eta jarreran eragina daukatela.

Emaitzak positiboak izan diren arren, nesken eta mutilen motibazio mailan eta jarreran dagoen desberdintasuna eskolan eta familian landu beharreko zerbait dela uste dut. Zein da desberdintasun hauen zergatia? Zergatik pentsatzen dute mutikoek gehiago lanean eta bidaiatzean, eta emakumeek garapen pertsonalean? Ba al du eraginik eskolako giroak desberdintasun hauetan? Etxean entzuten dituzten gauzengatik da, edo Interneten eta bideo-jokoetan aritzen direnean entzuten dituzte?

Bukatzeko, aipagarria iruditzen zait bi genero hauek irakurtzerakoan euskara gehien erabiltzea. Hau eskolan irakurketa ohiturak hobetzeko helburuarekin garatzen ari diren proiektuen ondorioa da, eta argi dago eragin positiboa daukatela. Gainera, hain gaztetatik kultura ez galtzearekiko horrenbesteko interesa erakustea oso positiboa eta mantendu beharreko zerbait da. Nire ustez, oso motibagarria izango litzateke kulturarekin lotutako gauza gehiago sartzea hizkuntza saioetan, ikasleek hizkuntzak ikastea daukan garrantzia ez ahazteko (batez ere hizkuntza minoritarioen kasuan).

A study on motivation and attitude towards language learning in young learners 47

REFERENCIAS

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Broughton, G., Brumfit, C., Pincas, A., & Wilde, R. D. (2002). Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Routledge Education Books.

Clarke, P. (November 2009) Supporting children learning English as a Second Language in Early Years (birth to six years). Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. Retrieved from: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/earlyyears/supporting_children_lea rning_esl.pdf

Davies, J. and Brember, I.: 2001, The closing gap in attitudes between boys and girls: A five year longitudinal study, Educational Psychology 21, 103-115.

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Gardner, R., & Lambert, W. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Gobierno de España (1978). Constitución Española. Boletín Oficial del Estado, 29 de diciembre de 1978, núm. 311, p. 9. Retrieved from: https://boe.es/legislacion/documentos/ConstitucionCASTELLANO.pdf

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Gobierno de Navarra (1986). Ley foral 18/1986, de 15 de diciembre del euskera. Retrieved from: http://www.lexnavarra.navarra.es/detalle.asp?r=1822

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Heining-Boynton, A. L. and Haitema, T. (2007). A ten-year chronicle of student attitudes toward foreign language in the elementary school. The Modern Language Journal 91, 149-168.

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Jama-Zambrano, V. R., Cornejo-Zambrano, J. (2016). Socioeconomic conditions and its influence on learning: a case study. Dominio de las ciencias. 2 (1), 102-117.

Lasagabaster and Sierra (2009). Language Attitudes in CLIL an Traditional EFL Classes. International CLIL Research Journal, 1(2). Retrieved from: http://www.laslab.org/wp- content/uploads/language_attitudes_in_clil_and_traditional_efl_classes.pd f

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ANNEXES

A. 1ST Annex: The questionnaire given to the students.

Link to access the online version of this questionnaire

A study on motivation and attitude towards language learning in young learners 51

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B. 2ND Annex: The results of the questionnaire according to age

YEAR FIRST SECOND THIRD FOURTH FIFTH SIXTH What languages do you usually use?

What language do your parents use at work?

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How 5 5 5 5 5 5 important is 4 4 4 4 4 4 to study 3 3 3 3 3 3 these 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 languages 0 0 0 0 0 0 for your

parents?

BASQUE BASQUE

BASQUE

SPANISH ENGLISH SPANISH ENGLISH

SPANISH ENGLISH

BASQUE BASQUE

SPANISH ENGLISH

SPANISH ENGLISH SPANISH ENGLISH

How do you…? 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

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How 5 5 5 5 5 5 Important is it to study 4 4 4 4 4 4 these 3 3 3 3 3 3 languages for you? 2 2 2 2 2 2 (1= Not 1 1 1 1 1 1 important at all 0 0 0 0 0 0 5= Very

important)

BASQUE BASQUE BASQUE

BASQUE

SPANISH SPANISH ENGLISH ENGLISH SPANISH ENGLISH

BASQUE

SPANISH ENGLISH

SPANISH ENGLISH ENGLISH SPANISH Will you continue learning languages when you are older?

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Are 5 5 5 5 5 5 language 4 4 4 4 4 4 lessons 3 3 3 3 3 3 entertaining? 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 (1= Very 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 boring 5= Very entertaining)

Are 5 5 5 5 5 5 language 4 4 4 4 4 4 lessons 3 3 3 3 3 3 easy? 2 2 2 2 2 2 (1= Very 1 1 1 1 1 1 difficult 0 0 0 0 0 0 5= Very

easy)

BASQUE

BASQUE BASQUE

SPANISH ENGLISH

BASQUE

SPANISH ENGLISH SPANISH ENGLISH

BASQUE

SPANISH ENGLISH ENGLISH SPANISH

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In what language do you watch TV, play video games, read books, BASQUE BASQUE BASQUE BASQUE BASQUE BASQUE browse on SPANISH SPANISH SPANISH SPANISH SPANISH SPANISH the internet ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH and listen to the radio on your free time?

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C. 3RD Annex: The results of the questionnaire according to gender

MALE FEMALE

5 5 What is your 4,5 4,5 language 4 4 proficiency level? 3,5 3,5 (1= Very bad, 5= Very good) 3 3

2,5 2,5

2 2

1,5 1,5

1 1

0,5 0,5

0 0 BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH SPEAKING WRITING SPEAKING WRITING READING COMPREHENSION READING COMPREHENSION

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What importance 5 5 does learning 4,8 4,8 these languages 4,6 4,6 have? 4,4 4,4 (1= Not important 4,2 4,2 at all 4 4 5= Very important) BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH

Are language 5 5 lessons 4 4 entertaining? 3 3

(1= Boring 2 2

1 1 5= Very 0 entertaining) 0 BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH

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Are language 5 5 lessons easy? 4 4 3 3 (1= Very difficult 2 2 5= Very easy) 1 1 0 0 BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH

In what language do you watch TV, play video games, read books, browse on the internet and listen to the radio on your BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH BASQUE SPANISH ENGLISH

free time?

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D. 4TH Annex: The results of the questions related to attitude and difficulty in language lessons according to gender.

MALE FEMALE

Basque Spanish English Basque Spanish English

How entertaining do you find 3,82 3,64 3,64 4,03 3,83 4,16 language lessons? How easy do you find 3,64 3,59 3,5 3,83 3,78 3,75 language lessons?

E. 5TH Annex: Results of the questions “Will you continue learning languages when you are older?” and “Why do you think learning languages is important?”

Question 1: Will you continue learning languages when you are older?

Question 2: Why do you think language learning is important?

STUDENT Nº STUDENT YEAR GENDER QUESTION 1 QUESTION 2

Euskara ez galtzeko, inglesa irlandara joateko eta Student 1 1st FEMALE YES gaztelania jendearekin hitzegiteko

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Niretzat, etorkizunerako, Student 2 1st FEMALE YES beste pertsonekin harremanak eukitzeko....

Euskara gustatzen zaitdalako, castellano porque no podría Student 3 1st FEMALE YES hablar con nadie, Inglesa saia da.

Hizkuntzak oso garrantzitsuak Student 4 1st MALE YES direlako

Euskarada idioma bat Student 5 1st FEMALE YES importantea

Para relacionarme mejor con Student 6 2nd MALE YES las personas y porque me gustan mucho

Saber no ocupa lugar y va Student 7 2nd FEMALE YES bien para todo

Student 8 3rd MALE YES No se me gustan

Porque es importante Student 9 3rd FEMALE YES aprender

Los idiomas son Student 10 3rd MALE YES fundamentales para la

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comunicación y relación con otras personas

Student 11 3rd MALE YES Munduan zehar ibiltzeko

SON IDIOMAS QUE ME Student 12 3rd FEMALE YES INTERESA PERFECCIONAR

Para viajar el Ingles y el resto Student 13 3rd FEMALE YES para mi futuro

Porque es bueno saber Student 14 3rd MALE YES idiomas, también por la cultura y por el futuro laboral.

Zeren joaten bagara Estatu Batuetara eta ez badakizu Student 15 3rd MALE YES ingelezez hitz egiten ez duzu ezer ulertuko.

Student 16 3rd FEMALE YES Erabiltzeko bisitzan

Bidaiatzeko, lanerako, Student 17 3rd MALE YES kanpoko jendearekin hitzegiteko

Student 18 3rd FEMALE YES Yo no sé

Porque te abre muchas Student 19 3rd FEMALE YES puertas

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Gero eta hizkuntz gehiago Student 20 3rd MALE NO Jakin hobeto komunikatzeko jendearekin

Me gusta aprender idiomas. Student 21 3rd FEMALE YES Quiero aprender después más idiomas

Porque es importante aprender idiomas para Student 22 4th MALE YES desenvolverme mejor en el futuro.

Bidaiatzen duzunean Student 23 4th FEMALE YES errazago komunikatzeko

Student 24 4th FEMALE YES Me gustan mucho

Bidaiatzen dudanean Student 25 4th FEMALE YES ulertzeko, irakurteko...

Garrantzitzua da lan egiteko Student 26 4th FEMALE YES eta ezagutzeko lekuak.

Porque cuantos más idiomas Student 27 4th FEMALE YES hables mejor.

Student 28 4th FEMALE YES Me gustan

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Euskera eta ingelasa estudioak ateratzeko eta Student 29 4th MALE YES gaztelania hizkuntz onetan hitz egiten dudalako

Cuantos más sepa, con más Student 30 4th FEMALE YES gente podré relaccionarme

Student 31 4th FEMALE YES Gustatzen zaidalako.

Student 32 4th MALE YES Hizkuntzak aberasten zaitu

Student 33 5th FEMALE YES Gure hizkuntza delako

Porque te puede ayudar Student 34 5th MALE YES mucho para otros paises

Tendré más posibilidades en Student 35 5th FEMALE YES el futuro

Euskara: Euskara galtzea ez nahi dudalako eta oso hizkuntz polita delako. Gaztelera: Nire herrialdean pertson guztiak hitzegiten Student 36 5th FEMALE YES dutelako. Ingelesa: Mundu osoan hitzegiten delako eta oso garrantzitsua delako bizitzarako, lanerako…eta abar.

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Ingelera mundu osoan itz egiten delako eta bidaiatzeko Student 37 5th MALE YES etta lanana egiteko balioko zaigu

Porque puedes hablar con Student 38 5th FEMALE YES otra gente que no sea de aqui

Inglés porque para trabajar igual me hace falta, euskera por tradicion y para que no se Student 39 5th MALE YES pierda. Castellano para comunicarme con todos los que no saben euskera.

Student 40 6th MALE NO Porque con lo que se me bale

Student 41 6th FEMALE YES Para saber idiomas

Student 42 6th MALE NO Porque todos se me dan bien.

Bizitzarako baliagarriak Student 43 6th FEMALE YES izango direlako

Beste leku batzuetara joaten zarenean hizkuntzak batzuk Student 44 6th FEMALE YES jakin hobeto jendearekin komunikatzeko

Student 45 6th FEMALE YES Hobe elkar ulertzeko.

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Gero eta hizkuntz gehiago Student 46 6th MALE NO jakin hobeto jendearkin komunikatzeko

Ingelesa ia leku guztietan hitz Student 47 6th FEMALE YES egiten delako, eta beste biak ez hainbeste.

Uste dut kultura orokorra direlako eta joaten bazara Student 48 6th MALE YES AEBra eta ez dakizu hizkuntza ezingo duzu jendearekin hitz egin.

Para el trabajo,para Student 49 6th MALE YES viajar,para estudiar

Student 50 6th FEMALE YES Ikasteko

Ongi komunikatzea Student 51 6th FEMALE YES ezinbestekoa delako

Porque aprender idiomas es Student 52 6th FEMALE YES importante

Porque así puede optar mejor Student 53 6th MALE YES a un trabajo y poder salir del país

CUANTOS MAS IDIOMAS Student 54 6th MALE NO MEJOR

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Garrantsitsua iruditzen zaidalako hizkuntzak hitz Student 55 6th FEMALE YES egitea, gainera hizkuntzak ez dira galdu behar.

Bizitzan oso baliagarriak Student 56 6th FEMALE YES direlako.

Porque es Bueno saber Student 57 6th FEMALE YES idiomas

Hizkuntzak aberastu egiten Student 58 6th FEMALE YES gaitu gizakiak bezala… mundura irekitzen digu.

5TH Annex: Summary of the mean results related to attitudes towards language learning and gender.

Male Female

Proficiency 4,02 4,22

Importance 4,44 4,73

Interest 3,7 4,01

Ease 3,58 3,79

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